Container filling machines have been developed for inserting solid or semi-solid food products into containers. The food product is most often sliced into cube like portions to facilitate forming the food product into sized portions for ease of insertion of the food product into containers. The filling machine has a product sizing station where the food product is measured and sized into the desired portion to be inserted into a container. The sized portion is transferred from the sizing station to a container filling station where the sized food product portion is inserted into a container.
A machine of this type is disclosed in the commonly assigned application Ser. No. 08/164,138 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,156.
The sizing station of the machine inserts the desired portion into a movable pocket or turret insert. The machine transfers the pocket with the sized portion contained within from the sizing station to the filling station where a tamping cylinder or plunger dispenses or inserts the food product from the pocket into a container. The containers are transported by a single lane conveyor and are sequentially presented to the filling station. Machines of this type are arranged to fill only a single lane of containers.
There is a need for a machine that will fill multiple lanes of containers at the same time. The present invention fills that need.